


Into the Dungeon! Enter Dantalion

by Scriberat



Series: Month of Mei 2020 [23]
Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24353767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scriberat/pseuds/Scriberat
Summary: Kouen and Judar are in agreement: it's time for Koumei to capture a dungeon!
Series: Month of Mei 2020 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727365
Kudos: 12





	Into the Dungeon! Enter Dantalion

**Author's Note:**

> ive wanted to write this for ages

Koumei looked up at the building, impressed by the size of it. It appeared, from the outside, to be a large observatory. There was even a massive telescope coming through the roof. He looked over at Judar and sighed.

"Ani-o would be much more suited to being a King's Vessel," he said.

"He already has one," Judar said. "Let's go already."

12 years old, and he was still an impatient brat. Koumei chuckled and nodded, then put his hand on the gate.

He found himself floating briefly and looking at a large planet with dozens of beams of light coming out of it, like the one he was currently in. Kouen's insistence on them being from another world suddenly made a whole new level of sense. If this dungeon connected to this beam of light, then the other beams must be other dungeons with other Djinn. He tried to count them and got to three before he was sucked in at mach speed.

When Koumei awoke, he was in the sky among the stars. Looking around, he could feel the lack of ground beneath him, but as long as he wasn't actively falling, that was fine. He stood and sought out Judar, who woke, screeched, and started floating. Taking a step, he found that he could walk on the air.

"Judar, I'm right here," Koumei said. He held his hand out. Judar scooted over and took it.

"I'm only holding your hand because you might fall," he said.

"Thank you for looking out for me," Koumei said.

As his men came through, he instructed them to be calm. Then they got into formation. He looked around the stars and saw a planet that had great continents and seas. Observing it from all sides, he could see that one area was painted. He wondered if he could stand there...

There! There was a bright star among the others. The entire room seemed to spin centered upon it from here.

"Polaris," he whispered. He walked to it and touched it. A door opened where it was, and he moved through it. His men walked through after.

His men were fighting off slimes with ease.

"Capture some of them," Koumei ordered. "We'll take them home with us."

"Pretty confident that we'll make it through, huh?" Judar said, smirking. Koumei nodded.

"Given your blessing, Oracle, I have no doubts."

They continued on through the dungeon until they reached a large door with unfamiliar constellations — well, unfamiliar to the soldiers. Koumei had studied them. While his country had its own constellations of the Shishou and the Yellow Dragon, he knew that another widely accepted grouping was a Western style, borne from Hellas. Sure enough, he could see Virgo at the bottom and Pisces at the top.

"Interesting..." Not knowing these would make things difficult. He searched around the room and saw two statues of bulls. With a nod, Koumei pressed his hand on Taurus.

The door opened. That was easy.

They continued onward, fending off monsters, capturing a few with the cages that Koumei had thought to bring with him. Judar floated along, looking bored as he spun in the air.

A hallway led to an open room, a very open room. One of the men walked into the air, expecting it to be like before, and nearly fell to his death. A few of his comrades grabbed him. Koumei memorized their faces.

He looked out over the room and saw the door through on the other side, but nothing but torches and the inky blackness below stood between them. No, wait... Tilting his head, crouching down, looking for something... There! In the torchlight, something was glinting, or was it? Observing closer, he realized the glinting was that something trying to appear in the shadows between the torches.

"Put those lights out, please," he said to Judar.

"How are we supposed to see?" Judar asked.

"Just trust me." They looked at each other. Then Judar went for it and put out the torches with his ice. With each one that went out, the path appeared just a little more. Once they were all out, it showed itself fully. He walked across steadily.

The next room had 16 pieces on either side and a manual. Koumei picked it up.

"Different pieces... King, Queen, rooks, bishops, knights... Ah, xiangqi. The style is different." He read it through for the info, then stepped up to see how it would go. The white side, the first side, was his enemy. Koumei nodded and calculated potential moves, as well as the most unlikely way to go about things. One pawn moved. He ordered his to G4.

It was a poor opening move, but given that this board likely expected good ones, he figured it would lead to the path to victory. They continued playing with him making ploying moves that confused the enemy greatly. And then...

"Checkmate," he said. The white side shattered. Their king had been captured.

His men clapped.

"What the fuck was that?" Judar asked.

"Language. It was something called chess." They moved on from that room.

There was, next, a strange puzzle of tiles with channels on the ground and up the walls, as well as walls in the middle of the room with more of this strange puzzle. In four corners of the room were glowing fountains. He observed them and saw that they were sending energy into the channels on the floor. In order to pass and send that energy to the door, where end nodes were placed, he would have to shift those channels around.

Leading them to the door was easy. Figuring out how to fill the entire room after the door refused to open was a little more difficult. They finally got everything twisted around.

Then it was chaos, absolute chaos. Winged monsters flew down from the sky screeching, more monsters came from the ground. Koumei swiftly ordered his men into defensive circles and commanded them through the battle, watching the patterns of the enemies.

Within 10 minutes, that battle was over, and another door appeared. A few of his men pushed it open. As they walked through, they found themselves inside the Necropolis.

The buildings were empty. The streets were devoid of life. There was no clothing hanging in the streets, no food, no rugs, no signs of anything having existed save for these buildings.

It felt like walking in a graveyard with how unsettling it was.

Koumei went to the largest building, the one that was clearly the center of government. Inside, he found the treasure room.

"Good. I assumed that would lead here," he said quietly. Everything was stone, as always. He ordered his men to start bagging it up as he sought the metal vessel. It was a telescope. He tried looking through it and found it focused hard on tiny specks of dust. Long focus for watching the stars closely, it seemed.

The telescope's glass clouded as the Djinn appeared before him. He set it down quickly and watched as the blue coalesced. There was a lot of it, and then he realized there was a lot of hair. He also saw horns, sharp teeth, and glinting eyes.

"Well, well, 1,002 men walked into my dungeon, and I see 1,002 men before me. Despite all the battles, it seems you managed to make it through without a single death. Congratulations," the Djinn said. She wore half-plate armor and a pair of skirts, one that was armor, one that was cloth. Stars shown in the cloth and her hair.

"Thank you, Lady Djinn," Koumei said, bowing deeply. He heard a snort, and suddenly, the Djinn was right in front of his face.

"You're respectful, huh? Decent man. Flimsy stature, though. Not the type to work out?"

"I am not."

"That's too bad. You were almost perfect. But that's okay. Perfect is a bad thing that leads easily to corruption. My name is Dantalion, Djinn of Callousness and Superiority. For successfully completing my challenges, I declare you the conquerer. You have my power and whatever you can carry out," Dantalion said, sweeping her gaze over the floor. Stone turned to gold, and the men got to work gathering it up.

Koumei sought out some magical weapons, picking out three of them. Dantalion watched him go, curious about it.

"You don't have training with those."

"They're not for me." He called out for the three men who saved the life of their comrade and handed the swords to them.

"For assisting your brother-in-arms."

As everything was getting packed up, Koumei asked Dantalion about the focus on the stars. She explained that she had once focused deeply on them, many years ago. She refused to elaborate on that.

Once they were ready, she opened the way home.

"Well done, Ren Koumei. You possess the qualities I look for in a King, including compassion for your men. Good luck in becoming a great man."

"Thank you, Lady Dantalion," Koumei said, bowing. As they ported out, he took a deep breath. Callousness and superiority, huh? He wondered why the Djinn had such qualities assigned to them.

On the other side, Kouen was waiting for him.

"You made it," he said.

"I did," Koumei replied, feeling power buzz in his fan. "Apparently, she likes me."

"That's good. Let's head home."

Koumei got on his horse and helped Judar onto it, then rode off with his men, wondering what his new abilities would be.

**Author's Note:**

> danty danty danty danty
> 
> leave a comment! scream at me


End file.
